I'm a huge fan of Aristotle,
And I want to tell you why.
Aristotle was not that complicated.
His main idea was that everything is for human flourishing.
That everything you do,
The highest value is human thriving,
Human flourishing,
And that is so in line with compassion.
When you're compassionate,
You're not nice to everyone necessarily,
You don't say yes to everyone,
But you want long-term well-being.
You let your work serve life.
You let your work serve flourishing,
How you speak to your kids,
How you speak to your romantic partner,
How you treat friends.
You want everything to magnify human flourishing.
So I want to give you an Aristotelian framework for thinking about your life.
Where are you serving suffering?
Where are you serving flourishing?
By eating that extra cake with ice cream and three pizzas,
Are you serving suffering or are you serving flourishing?
If you go by Aristotle's philosophy,
You'll be kind to your body,
You'll do work you love,
You'll do things that put you in a good mood for your health,
And you're not going to give people a super hard time or be cruel or violent,
But not even like slightly unpleasant.
You're not even going to be unpleasant to people unless it has a higher purpose.
You can do some things that look mean from the outside.
You can tell someone a hard truth as an act of compassion,
And that still serves human flourishing,
And that still serves human thriving,
And that's still Aristotelian.
So I hope that don't be intimidated by the great poets,
By the great philosophers.
They are awesome,
Especially Aristotle.
Eudaimonia is his word for something that's like pleasant morally.
Like when you like teach a child to read,
It's not physical pleasure,
But it's still pleasure.
When you contribute to a higher cause,
It's still pleasure.
When you serve human flourishing,
He kind of coined this term for like the pleasure you get out of being kind to someone,
Out of an act of kindness,
Eudaimonic.
And then that's different from hedonic pleasure,
Which also has a place,
Which is like a massage,
A delicious meal,
Hedonic pleasure.
So I wish you lots of hedonic pleasure.
I wish you lots of eudaimonic pleasure.
May you flourish,
May you thrive,
And may you help everyone around you flourish and thrive.
